iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 26/09/2026

If you haven't played with pretext.plus in a while, we just spruced up the editor. It's looking pretty good even on mobile!

Screenshot of my intro to Topology book on pretext plus taken on an Android device. Design elements akin to Google Docs in the menu bar and VS Code for a sidebar hopefully provide an improved user experience.

071

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 05/09/2026

Reinventing the platonic ideal of social media from first concepts

Wii U WaraWara Plaza inviting a Miiverse post

140

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 04/09/2026

Teaching topology in 2026. 🚀

A screenshot of Lurch.Clontz.org. A partial proof of the fact that the discrete topology is a topology is partially validated by Ken Monk's Lurch javascript app (but saving to the cloud on this very new, almost certainly bugged web app I've put up).

390

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 02/09/2026

8yo's opinion of The Big Bang Theory aligns with the median I think

Lego minifigs of BBT characters getting eaten by a toy velociraptor.

010

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 02/09/2026

Mobile and desktop friendly web app to practice and demonstrate understanding of row reducing matrices: matrix.clontz.org/rref

0123

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 29/08/2026

#MathSky coming soon to pretext.plus

160

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 27/08/2026

github.com/PreTeXtBook/... Discussion at groups.google.com/g/pretext-de... will decide how/when this gets released.

screenshot of importing code into a build of the sample article using my proposed contribution to PreTeXt

120

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 21/08/2026

Fun in my intro Topology class: motivating implications between topological properties by having students map out the implication graph of properties of quadrilaterals.

Students at a blackboard doing a card sort described in the post.

1100

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 18/08/2026

Is overleaf getting thirsty?... (Can't help myself: PreTeXt.Plus previews compile in your own web browser when using Chrome, so no timeout limits apply!)

Screenshot of warning from Overleaf app:

That took a while...

Your project is near the compile timeout limit for our free plan.
Upgrade to get more compile time.

Start free trial

140

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 14/08/2026

Explicitly appealing to the properites of a transitive partial order in our department by-laws is my crowning achievement in campus politics. They fully promoted and gave me tenure for this one thing I think.

Screenshot:

Section 3.
For the purposes of these by-laws, comparison of faculty rank is defined as follows, where “A < B” is used to indicate that B is of higher rank than A.

(a directed graph defining Instructor < Senior Instructor < Associate Professor of Instruction < Associate Professor, Assistant Professor of Instruction < Associate Professor of Instruction < Professor of Instruction, and Assistant Professor < Associate Professor < Professor)

Note that this ranking is transitive (e.g. Professor of Instruction is of higher rank than Instructor), but some ranks are incomparable and thus neither is considered to be of higher rank than the other (e.g. Professor of Instruction and Associate Professor are incomparable; Instructor and Assistant Professor are incomparable).

190

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 12/08/2026

Classes start Tuesday so I figured I'd swing by the Dean's office for my hard copy.

Letter congratulations for full professor promotion.

3310

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 12/08/2026

Turning off Ralseis in the thingy is not only allowable, it's a moral imperative.

Screenshot of after you turn off Ralseis in the thingy.

010

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 09/08/2026

People: You can't just post one line from a song and expect everyone to know the song Me: Hey Schbladthe! Shiggity shiggity shwawth?

000

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 08/08/2026

well that's one way to put it

git diff deleted text which reads:

not "not success and not failed"

130

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 06/08/2026

Play along and help Cameron San Francisco solve the most E.V.I.L. of logistical nightmares! DM for a code to play at Play.MaPPmath.org 🧩🧩 #MathSky #MathFest

MaPP Challenge @ MathFest 2026 — Test Team
E.V.I.L. Scheduling
E.V.I.L.'s head of agent operations is Dr. Corrine Eyam. She has a strange method for scheduling meetings among E.V.I.L. agents: she draws a graph showing agents as nodes and meetings as edges. She colors the edges depending on which day the meeting will happen.

In the example on the left, agents 1 and 2 meet Saturday, 5 and 6 meet Wednesday, 1 and 5 meet Friday, and so forth.

(Pictures show graphs, and associate the days Monday-Saturday with six colors.)

011

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 01/08/2026

I played a few minutes and it's running solid so far for the most part. The gb camera videos are glitchy, with transitions between images looking like this. (Maybe intentional? But it struck me as more actual glitchy than creepy glitchy.) Looking forward to playing it more later!

Image of a transition between two game boy camera video frames

120

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 29/07/2026

I'll go there: pretext.plus now has a better mobile interface than Overleaf.

Mobile editor view on pretext plus. Menu and preview are collapsed so it's easy to read and edit text.

Preview view on pretext plus. Menu and editor are collapsed so it's easy to read output.

Overleaf mobile view. Editor and preview are both displayed side by side at ridiculously zoomed out state to fit everything into the narrow viewport

382

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 28/07/2026

Getting ready for my fall classes at pretext.plus/@ClontzSouthAL -- yes, that's automatically generated braille output for my Intro to Topology course notes, ready to be embossed by my accessibility center upon demand. #PreTeXtGang

0133

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 27/07/2026

You can now create projects from templates in PreTeXt.plus! Do you have a useful #PreTeXtGang starter document (on PreTeXt.Plus or GitHub) that would be useful for others to iterate on? Share it here or DM me and we may add it to the list!

modal showing "start project from template" offering a "demo course" template on PreTeXt.Plus

051

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 25/07/2026

Here's a sample of the fun work I squeezed in.

screenshot of play.mappmath.org displaying a directed graph of puzzle titles for "MaPP Challenge @ MathFest 2026"

130

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 21/07/2026

Tfw you turn 40 tomorrow

Me (a big goofball) at Wilderness Lodge at Walt Disney World Resort, wearing a huge foam orange cowboy hat, a WDW Mickey t shirt, two celebration buttons, and straddling a stick pony.

5130

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 21/07/2026

From now on whenever I think about taking up speedrunning this sage advice will come to mind

Deltarune screenshot. A character says: "How bout you go home and try doing a 100% run of your shower"

2101

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 18/07/2026

Begging mathematicians to learn the basics of how websites work.

Screenshot of text

Someone discovered four Fields Medal laureate lecture fields marked "HIDDEN" in the front-end code of the ICM 2026 official schedule. A single curl command

1181

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 17/07/2026

I keep scrolling past this and thinking either the photo is out of focus or my eyes are.

Link card with a photo of a soccer ball. Its pentagons are shades of gray that look at first glance like it might be two translucent photos overlayed.

051

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 05/07/2026

omg it will be true once this course actually begins this fall

screenshot of PreTeXt.Plus editor using Markdown-style PreTeXt to write a course syllabus. I've highlighted the text "professor of mathematics" in the preview.

1140

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 03/07/2026

Raising my kid right (no items, battlefield and omega form stages only)

Victory screen from Smash Bros Ultimate. The winning Yellow Team is a bearded man Mii Brawler and a young girl Mii Swordfighter.

010

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 28/06/2026

when I attempt to teach it at all

Flowery screenshot saying "Y... you can ignore my fake statistics!?"

020

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 26/06/2026

yeah okay no surprise lol

Email screenshot. Text:

You have used 100% of the Codespaces core hours included for the StevenClontz accoun

Your plan includes Codespaces core hours per month at no extra cost. You have used 100% so far this billing cycle.

$16.20 of $16.20

You'll be billed for usage beyond the included amount - unless a $0 budget is set for Codespaces, which blocks further usage until it resets. Your usage will [here the screenshot cuts off]

000

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 21/06/2026

To this day I remember how I learned "malevolent" and "macabre".

Deku tree in Zelda 64:

Malevolent forces even now are mustering to attach our hand of Hyrule.

Calvin and Hobbes comic snip:

But though you may find this slightly macabre /
We prefer your extinction to the loss of our job.

140

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 14/06/2026

When you make amends with your rival so you can publish together

Deltarune chapter 2 screenshot:

Queen:
Kris Cross Applesauce

Deltarune chapter 2 screenshot:

Queen:
You Get Me Kris

Deltarune chapter 2 screenshot:

Queen:
Now That We Are Trucies I Feel We Are On The Same

Deltarune chapter 2 screenshot:

Queen:
Mathematical Wavelength

140

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 11/06/2026

I hope it's good but so far, honestly, same energy

Screenshot of the 2004 fan game Chrono Trigger: Resurrection

110

Steven Clontz @clontz.org · 11/06/2026

literal words out of my mouth when I saw this banner ad on the mathfest webpage: "oh yuck!" ("banner ad" was in scare quotes until I realize it rotated into an actual ad and not just a link to another MAA event!!)

MAA MathFest official webpage -- a banner ad for "Your math skills can move markets" shows up at the bottom of the page.

010